Not till he resigned and the general manager investigated the sales and collection departments did the real cause of the failure become evident. Important and numerous as had been the economics inst.i.tuted, they all fell under the head of the "easy improvements "
based on previous experience and observation.
When problems outside this experience presented themselves, the manager encountered his plateau.
In the acquisition of skill, days of progress are followed by stationary periods. "Time must be taken out" to allow the formation of a habit or the organization of this new knowledge or skill.
All trees and plants have periods of growth followed by periods of little or no growth. In May and June the leaves and branches shoot forth very rapidly, but the new growth is pulpy and tender. During succeeding days or months, these tender shots are filled in and developed. In learning and in habit formation a similar sequence is lived through. We have days of swift advancement followed by days in which the new stage or method of thinking and acting takes time to become organized and solidified. The nervous system has to adjust itself to the new demands, and such adjusting requires time.
Although periods of incubation are essential for every specific habit, practically every act of skill is dependent upon a number of simpler habits. At any one time progress may be made in utilizing some of these habits, even though others could not be advantageously hastened.
Thus the period of incubation should not necessarily cause any profound slump in the advance. Almost invariably, however, it produces a plateau which persists until the worker
has mastered the expert way. The golf player, for example, usually finds he is able to drive longer and straighter b.a.l.l.s at the beginning of the season than a little later. The reason is that in golf the perfect stroke is the product of almost automatic muscular action.
In the first round the swing of the driver or iron is not consciously governed, and the muscular habit of the previous year controls.
Later, as the player concentrates on his task of correcting little faults or learning more effective methods, his stroke loses its automatic quality, his game falls off, and it is not until he masters his new form that he attains high efficiency.
The same cycle is repeated in office and factory operations, where efficiency is possible only when the hands carry out automatically the desired action. In typewriting and telegraphy, in the handling of adding machines, in the feeding of drill presses, punch presses, and hundreds of special machines, the learner pa.s.ses through three distinct phases: first, swift improvement in which prelearned move-
ments and skill are brought to bear on the task under the stimulus of both novelty interest and voluntary interest; second, arrested progress-- the period of incubation or habit formation; and the final stage of automatic skill and efficiency.
_Since increase of efficiency is dependent upon continued efforts of will, slumps are inevitable.
Voluntary attention cannot be sustained for a long period_.
Work requiring effort is always subject to fluctuations. The man with a strong will may make the lapses in attention relatively short. He may be on his guard and "try to try" most faithfully, but no exertion of the will can keep up a steady expenditure of effort in any single activity. All significant _*increases_ in efficiency, however, are dependent upon voluntary attention--upon extreme exertions of the will.
No man can develop into an expert without great exertion of the will. Such exertions of the will are recognized by authorities as being very exhaustive and unstable. One of the greatest of the authorities and one who in
particular has emphasized the necessity of a "do-or-die" att.i.tude of work concludes his discussion with the following significant admission: "All this suggests that if one wants to improve at the most rapid rate, he must work when he can feel good and succeed, then lounge and wait until it is again profitable to work. It is when all the conditions are favorable that the forward steps or new adaptations are made."
Voluntary attention must be employed in making the advance step, in improving our method of work, and in making any sort of helpful changes. But voluntary attention must not be depended upon to secure steady and continuous utilization of the improved method or rate of work. To secure this end, an attempt should be made to reduce the work to habit so far as possible and also to secure spontaneous interest either from interest and pleasure in the work itself or because of the reward to be received.
The case of the young sales manager, described in the first part of this article, suggests
some of the methods by which this interest can be secured. The chief factor in his progress was the interest in the work itself due to the novelty of his successive tasks--an element impossible to introduce into the average man"s job. Yet there were other and powerful motives stimulating his interest: the responsibility of organizing a big department and of directing the expenditure of large sums of money; the prompt credit given him and the growing confidence extended to him; and the expression of their appreciation in the concrete shape of salary increases.
It is quite true that these various stimulating factors cannot be produced indefinitely; tasks must "stale," praise grow monotonous, salaries touch their top level. But "making good" and finding interests in work crystallize into habits which endure as long as conditions remain fair. The rise of the efficiency curve thus depends upon recurrent periods of successful struggle followed by periods of habit formation and by the development of powerful spontaneous interests.
Voluntary interest is a valuable thing to possess, but a difficult thing to secure either within ourselves or in those under our charge.
In its psychological aspect, scientific management enters here. By working out and establishing a standard method and standard time for various "repeat" operations a workman is engaged in, it encourages--and even enforces--the formation of new efficiency habits. The bonus paid for the accomplishment of the task in the specified time supplies an immediate and powerful motive to the effort necessary to master the "right way" of doing things.
In the main, employees do their best to acquire efficiency; but their humanness must not be forgotten, and the burden of increasing efficiency must be carried largely by the executive.
His part it is to supply interest, if the nature of the work forbids the finding of it there, he must introduce it from outside either by compet.i.tion, by emphasizing the connection between the task and the reward, as in piecework, or by provision of a bonus
for the achievement of a certain standard of efficiency.
He must eliminate the factors in environment or organization which distract employees and make voluntary interest more difficult.
He must provide the means of training and must understand the possibilities and the limitations of training. If a man "slumps"
in efficiency, he must look for the cause and make sure this is not beyond the man"s control before he punishes him. In a word, he must allow for periods of incubation or unconscious organization before expecting maximum results from a new employee or an old man a.s.signed to a new job.
_The man who by persistent effort has developed himself into an expert has greatly enhanced his value to society. The boss who demands expert service from untrained men is either a tyrant or a fool. But the executive who develops novices into experts and the company which transforms mere "handy men" into mechanics are public benefactors because of the service rendered to the country and their men_.
CHAPTER XI
PRACTICE PLUS THEORY
THE demand for trained and experienced men is never supplied. Most business and industrial organizations find their growth impeded by the dearth of such men.
To employ men trained by compet.i.tors or by inferior organizations is expensive and unsatisfactory. A man trained till he has become valuable to his "parent" organization is not likely to be equally valuable to other organizations that might employ him at a later time. In general, the most valuable men in any organization are the men who have grown up in it.
The man who is "a rolling stone" secures, in a way, more experience than the man who is developed within a single organization, but his wider experience does not of necessity make him a more valuable man. It is not mere
experience that educates, develops, and equips men, but experience of particular sorts, and acquired under very well defined conditions.
"Scientific management" has taken seriously the problem of providing and utilizing the most valuable experiences. But the viewpoint of the leaders in this modern movement is that of the employer seeking the most valuable experiences for those employees whose work is mainly mechanical, _e.g_. machine tenders, stenographers, etc. Scientific management has conclusively demonstrated the fact that it is poor economy to depend upon haphazard experiences for the development of those employees whose excellence depends upon the speed and accuracy of their occupation habits. It has thus done great service in demonstrating the kind of experience most valuable in developing men for positions of routine work. But it has done little for men whose welfare depends upon judgment--in making new adjustments and in solving the new problems continually arising in all positions of responsibility. It has left for others
to consider the experiences most profitable for developing executives.
_The most valuable experience in acquiring an act of skill is frequent repet.i.tion in performing the act_.
The value of the experience continues till by frequent repet.i.tion the act has become so mechanical that it is performed without attention.
Further experience has little or no value.
On the other hand it is true that every worthy calling demands forms of activity which could not and should not be mechanized.
There are emergencies in every form of occupation that call for new adjustments. The ability to make such new adjustments depends upon richness of experience and width of view as well as upon skill in performing the old processes.
The difference between a machine and a man is that the man is capable of adjusting himself to the changed situation, while a machine cannot do so. The machine may work more accurately and more rapidly than the man
in routine work, but it is capable of nothing but routine work. There is a need for much experience to make the man approximate the skill and accuracy obtained by a machine.
But there is also need of experience to develop the man in that particular in which he surpa.s.ses a machine, _i.e_. in a broad experience that enables him to form judgments and hence to make a mult.i.tude of different adjustments when a need for a change occurs.
A machine is constructed to perform a particular kind of routine work in a stereotyped way, but so soon as there is discovered a better way of performing this work the machine is thrown to the sc.r.a.p heap because it cannot be adjusted to new requirements.
_Experience which renders human activity machine-like is a form of experience that increases the probability that the possessor will be discarded and his work accomplished by the introduction of some new tool or some new method of work_.
Experience therefore which merely increases the skill of action without increasing the width
of horizon is necessary, but it is inadequate.
In addition to skill in routine work the man should secure the broader experience that will enable him to adjust himself to changed conditions in his occupation and that will develop the judgment necessary to enable him to adjust his vocation to new demands. Every form of occupation has many possibilities, a few of which are from time to time discovered to be significant. Advance in any sphere of work depends upon the discovery of these possibilities which the untrained eye of inexperience does not detect. Although a broad experience may enable the man to grasp the possibilities of his occupation, it fails to secure skill in the particulars that have already been found to be important. While a broad experience leaves a man incapable of present compet.i.tion, the narrow experience jeopardizes his future.
The most valuable experience is therefore one that equips the man to compete with the skillful in the present and to comprehend his task so that he may from time to time adjust
it to new relationships. It emphasizes the formation of necessary habits, but does not neglect the development of the judgment.
Such an experience is both intensive and extensive; informal and formal; mechanical and theoretical; practical and scientific. Such experience alone meets the demands of the increasing complexity of industrial and commercial life.
HOW MAY THE MOST VALUABLE EXPERIENCE BE SECURED AND UTILIZED
_I. Haphazard Experience_
But little attention is given to providing those experiences that most adequately prepare one for commercial and industrial life.
The boy who is to become a skilled workman is compelled to "pick up" his experience as best he can. The same is true of the boy who aspires to a position as salesman, banker, or manufacturer. Every employer seeks only experienced men, and but few places are available where such experience can be economically and honorably secured.
The youth without experience, desiring to become a skilled machinist, may secure some experience with machinery in a second-rate factory during the rush season. Because of his incapacity, he is laid off as soon as the rush is over. Thereupon he applies as an experienced machinist in a better shop. If he is lucky, he may secure a position. If the supervision is inadequate, or the demand for labor unusual, he may retain his position for several hours, or days, or even weeks. After years of such distressing experiences, the youth succeeds in "stealing his trade." In the meantime he has been an economic loss to his many employers, and his experience may have depraved his character.
The condition found in the industrial world is no worse than that in the commercial world.
The selling force is recuperated by green hands.
In most selling organizations no instruction is given and no experience provided except what is picked up haphazard behind the counter or on the road. Most new men fail, are dismissed, employed by another firm and dis-
missed again, etc. We have here nothing but a struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest in a crude and destructive form.
The burnt child avoids the fire, and his experience is most effective. However, the wise parent arranges conditions so that the burn shall not be too serious. The machinist who "steals" his trade profits greatly by his mistakes, and the new salesman never forgets some of his most flagrant errors. Such experiences are practical, lasting, effective, but uneconomical. But such experiences are of necessity unsystematic and inadequate to modern industrial and commercial demands.
_II. Apprenticeship Experience_
The waste in the Haphazard method of securing experience in the industrial world has long been apparent and has led to attempts to provide systems of apprenticeships which would enable the youth to secure educative experiences with a minimum of cost to himself and his employer.
In theory the youth who becomes an ap-
prentice is bound or indentured to serve his master for a period of years. During that time the master agrees to see to it that the apprentice practices and becomes proficient in performing all the processes of the trade.